I enjoy making
ravioli very much. It's quite a bit of work, but so rewarding when
you have the end product. I like eating light pasta dishes in the
summer, and already a few of these ravioli can be enough for a light
summer meal! I thought that my ravioli filling was quite vibrant this
time, and of course you can fill some other shaped pasta with it as
well. I served the pasta with homemade radish leaf pesto, which is in
my mind the best kind of pesto.
These hedgehog
ravioli come a little bit late for the
Hedgehog Awareness Week this
year, but shouldn't every day be about hedgehog awareness anyway?
Please follow
these instructions for making this dish.
Pasta:
400 g grade 00
pasta flour
4 eggs
1 tsp salt
Mix the
ingredients and knead into a firm dough. Press the dough into a ball
and let it rest wrapped in cling film in the fridge for at least one
hour.
Later when you get
to assembling the ravioli, roll out the pasta dough thinly with a
pasta machine and cut shapes from it.
Ravioli filling:
3 yellow and
orange romano peppers (or other peppers)
Vegetable oil for
char-grilling
1 small shallot
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp olive oil
50 g vegetarian
pasta cheese / vegetarian parmesan
A handful of fresh
basil leaves
½ tsp oregano
½ tsp ground
black pepper
1 tsp salt
Breadcrumbs
(depending on the texture of the paste)
Char-grill the
peppers until they have some black grilling marks and roast them at
200C for about 10-15 minutes until they are fully soft with some
additional roasting flavours.
Cook the finely
chopped shallot and garlic in little olive oil in a pan until soft.
Grate the cheese
and purée all ingredients into a firm paste. Add breadcrumbs if the
paste seems to be too moist. I had to add about 4 tablespoons to get
my moist peppers to settle.
Cut
hedgehog-shaped pieces (or any other shapes) from the rolled out
pasta dough with a cookie cutter, fill the small hedgehog bellies
with the filling (about 1 teaspoon each) and press firmly together. A
light brushing of water around the edges helps the ravioli to stick
together.
Once assembled,
boil the pasta in water until al dente.
Radish leaf pesto:
The leaves from a
bunch of radishes
1 clove of garlic
30 g cashew nuts
3-4 tbsp olive oil
A sprinkle of salt
The pesto can be
prepared before the pasta making and left in the fridge.
Blanch the radish
leaves for ten seconds in boiling water and quickly transfer them
into cold water and then drain. Purée the leaves with the other
ingredients and place the pesto into the fridge.
Serve the pasta
with the pesto and some additional grated vegetarian pasta cheese as the
spines and enjoy!
Your VegHog
A simple weekday
pasta is where it's at right now! I just can't resist all the lovely
seasonal summer greens that can make amazing salads and pasta dishes.
So many leaves can be used to make pesto, just pick your favourite! I
think that radish leaves are brilliant additions to pasta dishes,
either a bit wilted or as pesto. Until a few years ago, I didn't even
know that they are edible! Now of course I hate to waste them and
always try to incorporate them into cooking. An easy radish leaf
pesto with macaroni was just the right choice for this weekday
dinner.
